It's interesting to me that in the two stories I have already read The Juniper Tree and Little Red Riding Hood) the forest or a tree is a main element of the story. Also, a lot of the fairy tales I know from my childhood have forests ie. Hansel and Gretle, Beauty and The Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White...etc.) What's going on with the forest?
In the book "The Forest: In Folklore and Mythology" by Alexander Porteous, there are references to trees being used as guardians of personal welfare and guardians of marriages in german and slav cultures. Could this have something to do with the Juniper Tree? Perhaps the tree was guarding the boy or guarding the family in general?
Also, I found in "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell, Campbell states, "the bird is symbolic of the release of the spirit from bondage to the earth (23)".
It raises several questions for me...was the boy embodied in the bird? What happened to the bird after it dropped the millstone?
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